Inspired by this website, which chronicles the multitude of tragedies that befall women in comic books. I’m curious if a disproportionate amount of suffering really does befall female comic book characters compared to their male counterparts.
To this end, I seek to compile a list of male comic book characters who have suffered fates similar to those listed on Women in Refrigerators. As I’m not the most avid reader of comics (preferring to study the old lore rather than the current events) I am enlisting the aid of the boards.
Please box major spoilers.
I’ll provide a few examples to get things rolling.
BatmanBoth parents were murdered before his eyes when he was eight. Back broken by Bane.
Tim Drake, Robin IIIFather killed by Captain Boomerang during Identity Crisis.
**Barry Allen, Flash ** - Dead
Hal Jordon, Green LanternHometown destroyed, went insane, turned evil, destroyed the Green Lantern Corp, became a spirit of vengeance, got better.
Superman. Died, got better. Lost his entire race when his planet exploded.
Plastic Man – dumped into a vat of acid.
The Spectre – died. In his origin story.
Deadman – died. Also in his origin.
Zatarra the Magician – vanished for several decades.
Ferro Lad – died. Never came back (except possibly once as a ghost)
Element Lad – entire planet wiped out.
Mon-El – nearly died of lead poisoning. Spent centuries locked away with hardened criminals.
Dr. Mid-nite – blind
Daredevil – blind
I don’t think female characters, especially if we disregard supporting characters and focus on headliners and varsity superteam members, are more prone to misfortune than males. Superhero comics are soap operas with more hitting. I bet Spider-Man and Aquaman alone have more tragedy than all the females combined.
What is interesting/troubling, however, is the nature of the misfortune. When a bad thing happens to a girl, it’s much more likely to be sexualized. Whether for titillation of the readers or to heighten the horror, when a girl gets kidnapped, they’ll be overtones of rape. When she’s mind-controlled into being evil, her evil ID will be a complete slut. They aren’t just knocked around like the boys are, there’s very often an overtone of sexual intimidation.
This isn’t a hard rule, and there’s plenty of counterexamples, of course. Oddly enough, I can only think of two major female characters who were without a doubt actually raped (and one of them is from mythology, so she hardly counts), and I can think of two men who were raped (by women).
The list’s (current) criteria of a character having “been killed, raped, depowered, crippled, turned evil, maimed, tortured, contracted a disease or had other life-derailing tragedies befall [them]” is pretty damn broad. I can’t really imagine any headlining character that wouldn’t qualify.
Aquaman- His son was killed. His hand was eaten by piranhas.
Spiderman-Had eye bitten out.
Ghostrider-Johnny Blaze- Sold soul for nothing. Later had most of the flesh mystically sliced off his body by demented surgeon and a monkey.
Ghostrider-Dan Ketch-Had his throat bitten out by a serial killer.
Hawk- had his brother Dove killed pointlessly in Crisis
Changeling-His foster father’s mento helmet drove him insane, dad is now a crazed supervillain.
Cyborg-Lost most of his body during his origin.
Robin-Jason Todd- Tortured by the Joker, then killed by a bomb.
Glancing at WIR
It says Zatanna’s powers are “severly limited” Is this a new event or is this the old ‘speaking backwards make her weaker than a man’ crap?
Back To The Men
Captain Marvel- Died after long battle with cancer. Still dead.
Legacy- CM’s son. His dad died after a long battle with cancer.
Angel- Mutated by Apocalypse into a more monstrous form. Got slightly better.
Wolverine-Used as test subject by secret government agency, had his mind and memory frappeed. Had skeleton bonded with metal. Later had metal ripped from his body.
Beast-Accidentally turned himself blue and furry. Still blue and fury decades later.
Hulk-cursed to turn into hulk. Banner has been depowered many times over the years.
Hank Pym- Been depowered. been stuck at ant size. been stuck at 10 feet tall. suffered from multiple personalities.
WonderMan- coma, then revelation he’s no longer human.
Cypher- Killed.
ManBat- repeatedly stuck in a feral, mindless state.
Looking again, the WIR list is just stupid.
It lists Aquagirl and Dove 2 as dead. It leaves out the deaths of Aquaboy and the first Dove, who was male.
It lists Sue Richard’s miscarriage. That was a great tragedy indeed. But it was one felt equally by Reed. Reed risks his life trying to get Doc Ock to help with delivery. He reaches Octopus sleeping humanity and convinces him to lend his special radiation expertise. They rush to the OR. Reed learns he’s an hour too late. It was his baby too.
It lists Jocasta as deactivated several times. So have X-51 (Machine Man) and The Vision.
It lists Mantis child being taken away. IIRC as the Celestial Messiah (or something) Mantis gave her son willingly to the Coati to raise.
Mera-insane, child murdered. True enough. That would be Aquaman’s son. It’s his tragedy too.
Nova2- dead. Yep so is male herald- Airwalker. The Destroyer was destroyed. Airwalker robot was destroyed for years, then brought back after it’s appearance was changed from human to robotic.
“Rogue-just plain messed up” What the hell is this crap?
Scarlet Witch- Yes her kids vanished. This was not because bad things happen to women, but because John Byrne is both crazed and stupid.
Shrinking Violet-lost a leg. Lightning Man- lost an arm to “the moby dick of space”
The list is crap.
Oh
Cosmic Boy- Stripped of the magnetic powers all his people are born with.
Jason Todd - Lost his parents. Grew up on streets. Sent to orphanage. Nearly murdered by Fagin-style orphanage proprietor. Taken as ward by Batman. Discovered that dead Mother was actually stepmother. Went on quest to find real mother. Discovered real mother was criminal who doesn’t care about him. Betrayed by real mother. Beaten with crowbar by Joker. Blown up. Died.
And that’s when his problems began…